A Virtual Universe (VU) is a computer-based simulated world or environment; other terms for VU's include metaverses, “3-D Internet” and Virtual World, and VU will be understood to represent any of these environments. Users inhabit and traverse a VU, and interact with other VU users through the use of an avatar, a graphical representation of the user often taking the form of a cartoon-like human though any two or three dimensional graphic image or rendering may be utilized. In order to participate within or inhabit a VU a user creates an agent which functions as the user's account, and upon which the user builds an avatar tied to an inventory of assets the user owns in the VU and associated with the agent.
Many VU's are represented using three dimensional (3-D) graphics and landscapes and are populated by many thousands of users or “residents,” wherein the VU often resembles a real world or a fantasy/fictional world in terms of physics, houses, landscapes and in interpersonal communications with other user avatars. VU environments generally comprise a variety of man-made or computer application-generated artifacts, in one aspect representative of items understood and recognized by users through their experiences in the real world as well, as through fictional experiences. An artifact may be a tangible item engaged by an avatar or otherwise defining an environmental context of or setting for an avatar, including geographic features such as walkways and streets, buildings (stores, casinos, etc.), parks, plazas, atriums. Tangible artifacts may also include fantastical and expressionistic items and settings not known or experienced in the real-world, for example including artifacts representative of other real or imagined planets, of hell or heaven, or of worlds of fictional literature and the arts. Artifacts may also define personal property items, with illustrative but not exhaustive examples including motorcycles, tokens, guns, clothing, as well as fantasy world weapons, potions, spacesuits, armor, etc. Artifacts may also include avatars engaged in a VU, said avatar artifacts sometimes representing users or automated applications (for example, an automaton greeter programmed to request user information inputs); accordingly, avatar artifacts may evince or comprise a wide variety of visual and behavioral attributes, evidencing real-life human-like appearances and behaviors as well as fantastical powers, weapons or character appearances.
Large robust VU's and massively multiplayer online games, such as for example Second Life® (SECOND LIFE is a trademark of Linden Research, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries), Entropia Universe™ (ENTROPIA UNIVERSE is a registered trademark of MindArk PE AB in the United States, other countries, or both), The Sims Online™ (THE SIMS ONLINE is a trademark of Electronic Arts, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both), and There™ (THERE is a trademark of Makena Technologies, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both) render and display detailed, large and complex graphic environments within which users may travel and participate as if a character in an expressionistic or fantastical fictional world or within a realistic or representational approximation of real life.
A VU may also be defined with respect to multiple VU regions, virtual areas of land within the VU often residing on a single server, with each region amenable to provision and management by a one or more participating providers. The size and complexity and variety of resources found in a VU may be directly related to a number of providers participating and hosting regions through server hosting, and the success of a VU may depend upon attracting users and keeping them engaged and participating in the VU environment, thereby adding value to the providers who bear the cost in providing VU region content and services and who may correspondingly expect an appropriate level of multiple-user engagement as a return on their investment, as well as for other users who wish to engage many others in a large virtual community.
For example, an informational or service-related region managed by a non-profit organization may desire or expect a given level of VU user engagement and participation, and commercial region providers may desire to engage in a given level of commercial transactions (e.g. number of sales, advertising exposures or paying subscribers) or achieve a level of marketing exposure among VU users. However, the solitary and unsupervised nature of a user's engagement with a given VU may present problems, for example enabling a user to engage in unsafe or inappropriate activities available within the VU.